I was initially attracted to An Appetite for Violets (#470) by the cover art. When I read the early reviews for Martine Bailey's novel, several compared it to Downton Abbey, the rationale being, I suppose, that anything with the name Downton Abbey will guarantee sales. Since this is at the heart, a servant's tale, it does bear a slight resemblance to that masters & servants soap opera, but the neat and tidy images conjured up by the cover don't do this wickedly twisted tale justice.
Biddy Leigh is an undercook at a neglected English manor in the 1770s. When the book opens, she is torn between wanting to continue to hone her cooking skills, and giving up this satisfying pursuit to marry her sweetheart, Jem. Her life is turned upside down by the sudden and unannounced arrival of her master's brand new young wife on their doorstep. Lady Carinna has come to take stock of what she can carry off with her on her travels to Italy. She determines to include Pars, the butler and Biddy as her cook in addition to her enslaved footman and her maid. Since a cash bonus is promised to Jem for her services, Biddy soon finds herself traveling through England and France towards a villa in Italy. Nothing is as it seems on this journey, and Biddy is beguiled by the insistence of her mistress that she dress in Lady Carinna's clothes and do her best to imitate a grand lady herself, when she's not cooking and cleaning, of course. It seems that Carinna has plans for Biddy, and she's not the only schemer in the party...
Wheels within wheels kept this plot rolling along quite nicely. It's not a pretty story, and some of the descriptions of eighteenth century cooking do require somewhat of a strong stomach, but you find yourself turning just one more page to see what will happen next. I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
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